The Last Guardian Developer Possibly Teasing New Game

"Beauty and the Beast"?

An image posted on the website for Fumito Ueda's genDESIGN has sparked speculation that it's a teaser for a new game from the creator of ICO, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian.

Posted to celebrate the New Year, the image (below) shows a girl on a stone altar, staring at a mostly-obscured giant figure. Neither figure looks immediately reminiscent from Ueda's past games, leading some to believe that this is his studio's next game.

ResetEra user Rösti has seemingly discovered text in the image's source code, reading "Beauty and the Beast 2018" - some think this is a working title. As pointed out on Reddit, genDESIGN has been advertising for new job opportunities this year, implying active development is beginning on a new project since The Last Guardian shipped.

A counterpoint: the girl character does bear a resemblance to the silhouette on genDESIGN's logo - this could be more of an expressive image than a representative one.

IGN has contacted denDESIGN for comment on the image.

Even if this is a new genDESIGN game, form suggests we might not see the finished product for some time. The Last Guardian (in)famously took almost ten years to be released, with Ueda opening his new studio and transferring the game's development away from Sony mid-project.

The game was finally released in December 2016 - we awarded it a 7.0, calling it "a beautiful, melancholy game filled with the highest highs, and the lowest lows." A remake of Ueda's Shadow of the Colossus is on its way to PS4 this year.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and this looks like some strange Little Nightmares crossover to him. And he'd be up for that. Follow him on Twitter.